The plan is all well and good, but it may have one major flaw. And it’s why you need to worry: Unemployment is climbing dramatically among over-50s in many countries. According to the New York Times, in the US age group 55 and over more than 2.2 million are unemployed. That puts the unemployment rate of the group at 7.3 percent, more than double what it was at the start of the recession. The paper follows the trials of a well qualified 57 year old who has been unemployed for four years. In August, statistics put the average length of time someone over 55 spent out of work in the States at 39 weeks. After the last bad recession, in 1983, it was just 27.5 weeks.

If unemployment is rising among the over 50s, and the trend continues, that means less working people to share the burden, and potentially more people effectively retired sooner. That means a even bigger burden, absorbed by a working population with careers that may be cut short before their 60th birthdays. So, that generation has to make its own provisions, while providing for its parent’s generation, all in a much shorter time scale.

The lesson is that you probably need to save more now, and try to do it as efficiently as possible.

(Oh, and if you were hoping a big inheritance might help you out, you should forget it. According to a recent report in Europe, because so few people have made adequate provision for retirement, they will end up with very little to pass on.)